A Birmingham company which supplies paint for Nasa space shuttles has secured public funding to create new jobs.

Funding through Birmingham City Council is set to help coatings manufacturer Indestructible Paints fulfil ambitious growth plans.

The Sparkhill-based firm, which has grown year-on-year for seven years has been given £300,000 under the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI).

The company, which supplies paints and coatings designed for extreme environments, saw record sales in March and will use the money towards a £1.4 million project, the remainder of which has been self-funded.

It will see the firm create between 15 and 25 jobs over the next five years and investment in facilities and infrastructure at its site, as well as in IT and research and development.

The firm, which currently employs 36 people and has a turnover of £3.6 million, has already taken on four new recruits.

The company was founded by chairman Doug Norton in 1978 after he was made redundant and remains a family-run firm.

His son, operations director Alan Norton, said Britain was performing well in the aerospace sector.

“The UK is second in the world only to the US,” he said. “It is a good area to be involved in with great opportunities for the growth. It has been forecast that the aerospace industry will be worth somewhere between £3 trillion and £4 trillion by 2030.”

As well as Nasa, Indestructible Paints the likes of Rolls-Royce, helicopter manufacturers Eurocopter and Westland, Formula One companies like McLaren and Williams and Warwickshire prestige car-maker Aston Martin.

Mr Norton said: “We are getting massive amounts of work at the moment, mainly with aerospace, but managing growth is extremely important and that is the difficult part of it.”

He added that the company was “ramping up growth and expanding infrastructure” and as such

was looking to develop IT, training, machinery, production, and R&D.

Councillor Tahir Ali, Birmingham City Council’s cabinet member for development, jobs and skills, said the investment could bring about a valuable return.

He said: “This is a good example of exactly what we need to do, to get small businesses to grow and provide long-term sustainable jobs for local people.

“Indestructible Paints is something of a gem hidden away in the back streets of Sparkhill and it is local firms like this that will contribute to the economic well-being of the city and the region.”